Lyrical themes

The song appears to be commenting on moral decay in society; "Like those gasping for their last breath. We cannot hide, there's nothing left" "This world was never worthy, but how can I call it 'unfaithful'? Every promise was fulfilled as decay crawled from its throat." On the album version of the song, both the clean and the screamed vocals in the chorus are sung by vocalist Tim Lambesis, but in the live video shown on Fuel TV's "The Daily Habit", drummer Jordan Mancino sings the clean lyrics. In most live shows now, bassist Josh Gilbert sings the clean part.

April Rain

April Rain is the second full-length album by the Dutchsymphonic metal band, Delain. It was released in the Benelux on 20 March 2009 and was released internationally on 30 March 2009 by Roadrunner Records. It was released in Australia on 10 April 2009.

History

Martijn Westerholt, founder of Delain, originally did not intend Delain to be a live band. But after the success of debut album Lucidity a live band was created which recorded the album April Rain. While Delain's previous album Lucidity featured many guest appearances, this album has only two: Maria Ahn, cellist from the Ahn Trio and Finnish singer Marco Hietala, who was featured on multiple tracks of Lucidity as well. "Virtue and Vice" is the only song on April Rain containing death growls performed by guitarist Ronald Landa, who also contributes clean vocals on "Invidia".

Demo versions of "Stay Forever" and "Start Swimming" were already played live by Delain in 2007 and 2008. In November 2008, a version of the song "I'll Reach You" with alternate lyrics was performed live on a Dutch TV show to get attention for UNICEF & BT's "Inspiring Young Minds" charity.

Reception

John Bush of Allmusic noted that "even considering the lack of real progression in sound, Middle of Nowhere reflects the pair once again making all the right moves and not slowing down a bit," giving the album four stars out of five. Mark Bautz's review for Entertainment Weekly concluded that ravers should take note, as the album, "which has the goods to become this summer's feel-good record...will soon be everywhere," giving the album the grade of B+.NME gave the album the score of 8/10 and concluded that "this, if you want it, is therapy. As the boundaries of the future and the beyond are slowly mapped and planed, it's the confines of the skull the Hartnoll brothers are delicately probing here. It might take you a while, but you'll get there in the end. The middle of nowhere is always closer than you think."

Attila

Attila (/ˈætᵻlə/ or /əˈtɪlə/; fl. 434–453), frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. Attila was a leader of the Hunnic Empire, a tribal confederation consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, on the territory of Central and Eastern Europe.

During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.

He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans but died in 453. After Attila's death his close adviser Ardaric of the Gepids led a Germanic revolt against Hunnic rule, after which the Hunnic Empire quickly collapsed.

Attila (name)

Attila is a popular masculine name in both Hungary and Turkey. Another version of Attila in Hungary is Etele, the female equivalent of which is Etelka. Other versions of Attila used in Turkey are Atilla and simply Atila.

Otto Maenchen-Helfen, who considered Gothic etymology, noted that Hunnic names were "not the true names of the Hun princes and lords. What we have are Hunnic names in Germanic dress, modified to fit the Gothic tongue, or popular Gothic etymologies, or both".

Hyun Jin Kim noted Attila has more natural and probable Turkic etymology.Omeljan Pritsak considered ̕Άττίλα (Atilla) a composite title-name which derived from Turkic *es (great, old), and *t il (sea, ocean), and the suffix /a/. The stressed back syllabic til assimilated the front member es, so it became *as. It is a nominative, in form of attíl- (< *etsíl < *es tíl) with the meaning "the oceanic, universal ruler".Peter Golden, citing Pritsak, like László Rásonyi connected Attila's name with Menander note in which used term Attilan as the name of the Volga River (Turkic Atil/Itil; "great river").J.J. Mikkola connected it with Turkic āt (name, fame). Gerd Althoff considered it was related to Turkish atli (horseman, cavalier), or Turkish at (horse) and dil (tongue).

Nothing Left To Say

I remember the endless longingthat called inside of mefrom fountains of expressiontrying to break free.Nothing left to saywhen the walls give way.Still I can faintly recallthe subtle purityof youthful inspirationand insecurity.Nothing left to saywhen the child finds his way.Pride and the drive that started the dreamturned in time to an endless obsession.Caught in a vicious circle of compulsion.Desires bind the truth to secrecybut behind the aspirations I seea life devoted to blind ambitionand a mortal man searching for eternity.Behind the desiresand the wall that gave waythere's a forgotten causeconsumed by the day.Behind the ambitionsof a child who found his waythere's a cold realizationthat our deeds die with the day.And behind the disguiseof a man with a causethere's a child screamingwith nothing left to say.Paralyzed by inhibitionsand indecisions.What was once a release